HKUST condemnation of attack on student fails to dispel mainlanders’ safety fears amid Hong Kong protests
- Hong Kong University of Science and Technology says it strongly condemns incident in which mainland student was assaulted last week
- Rival groups clashed during meeting to discuss fatal car park fall suffered by Chow Tsz-lok
A statement by a Hong Kong university condemning the assault on a student last week has done little to allay the fears of many mainland Chinese.
The statement issued by the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology on Sunday has been viewed 140 million times on Weibo, China’s version of Twitter.
The university said: “We cannot accept the deliberate assault on the student. We assure everyone we will not tolerate violence on campus and strongly condemn the attack.”
More than 6,000 people left comments on the website, with many of them expressing concern over the safety of mainland students.
“I really dare not go to study in Hong Kong,” wrote one user at Weibo. “The statement came so late. The university issued the statement now for fear that all mainland students will leave it? ” asked a second.
“Are there any careless mainland parents who would send their children to Hong Kong [to study]? I will not even if the situation gets better.”